What happened to Labour's 2022 urban park promises?

It was February 2022, and the Labour Party was raring to go.

Hours after announcing a March 26 general election, Robert Abela told journalists that Labour's big idea was a €700 million, seven-year investment to develop “green urban lungs” that would create a network of gardens, green areas and car-free areas across towns and villages.

The following day, he unveiled the five big projects that would be the crown jewels in that plan. Each targeted a densely populated urban area. Each promised a major park right on people’s doorsteps.

1. A green roof for the Santa Venera section of Regional Road.
2. A pedestrianised St Anne Street in Floriana.
3. A large park instead of the Malta Dairy Products factory in Ħamrun.
4. A public garden instead of a car park in Cospicua/Senglea.
5. A garden and football pitch instead of Gozo’s biggest car park in Victoria.

Four years on and with another general election around the corner, none of those flagship projects are anywhere near completion. Some, such as that in Cospicua, have inched forward. Others, like the ambitious plan for Floriana, have been hugely downscaled. Some are still on the drawing board.

The 2022-2026 Labour government made significant investments in greening projects, investing €43 million to buy back Manoel Island and turn it into a park, cancelling a privatisation plan for the White Rocks Complex, pumping millions into parks at Ta’ Qali and Bengħajsa, and developing various smaller gardens and parks in urban pockets around the country.

But the government’s failure to deliver on any of its headline urban greening projects so far opens it up to accusations of over-promising and under-delivering. It also sheds light on the administrative bottlenecks that often bring grandiose electoral promises back to earth with a bureaucratic bump.

The site currently occupied by the milk factory in Ħamrun. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

In 2024, two years after Labour was reelected with a record majority, Project Green admitted that it was “not feasible” to reroute traffic underground at Floriana’s St Anne Street.

A promise to do the same thing in San Ġwann was also being “reassessed”, it said, a year after Environment Minister Miriam Dalli announced the green projects plans had been submitted to the Planning Authority. 

In Ħamrun, the party’s grand vision was held back by a dispute over relocating dairy producers to a new site. The government relented just two weeks ago, promising them a new factory in Luqa, freeing up the Ħamrun site to be eventually turned into a public open space.

Over in Senglea, plans for the existing car park took several years to take shape. A tender to redevelop the site into a garden with underground parking was issued late last year and is still being evaluated.

A car park in Victoria, Gozo remains just that. Photo: Jacob Borg

In Gozo, the promise of turning a massive Victoria car park into a garden has so far remained just that: a planning application for the project remains at a preliminary stage.

And the Santa Venera roofing pledge, which dates back years and was even included in Labour’s 2017 manifesto, remains in limbo. Labour’s 2026 manifesto states that the project can begin once major roadworks in nearby Msida are completed.

The Santa Venera tunnels. Photo: Mattherw Mirabelli

Quiet inclusions

When Labour unveiled the major projects, it set itself a seven-year deadline to get them done. That means the party still has until 2029 to deliver, and it says it is not giving up on the ideas.

The big projects promised in 2022 were all quietly included in the 263-page electoral manifesto the party unveiled this week, though the one for Floriana has been significantly downgraded: gone is the grand pedestrianisation vision, replaced with a more modest plan to restore the street’s historic arcades and improve pedestrian access.

San Ġwann main road. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Instead, much of the party’s greening focus appears to have shifted to Manoel Island, White Rocks and Fort Campbell: three new flagship projects which span more physical space than the original five, but which are situated in less densely urban settings.

A shift in focus?

Labour may have learnt its lesson about promising headline infrastructure projects with tight deadlines. In 2017, it promised to rebuild all of Malta’s roads within seven years. In 2022, it promised massive urban parks in that same time span.

This time round, the party has avoided any such promises. Robert Abela has said its ‘Malta in Motion’ plan to introduce a mass transit system will take 15 years.  Its Grand Harbour regeneration masterplan comes with a similar timeframe.

St Anne Street, Floriana. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Even Labour’s afforestation promises are more vaguely worded this time round. In 2022, it promised to plant 100,000 new trees. Earlier this week, Robert Abela said 60,000 had been planted. Labour’s 2026 manifesto does not set a specific tree-planting target.

By playing it safe, Labour is relying on voters opting for familiarity while guarding against slip-ups for headline projects. But in so doing, it has ceded its position as the party of big projects to its Nationalist Party rival.  

PN leader Alex Borg has pledged to build several new hospitals, set up an offshore fuel hub at Hurd’s Bank, and develop a mass transit system line - all within five years. He has also pledged a €350 million cultural hub in Marsa within 10. 

Those proposals could fire up voters’ imaginations. But they also expose the PN to the election cycle banana skin that voters have grown very familiar with: big promises that then struggle to be implemented.